Type-writer ribbon-vibrator.



A. c. ROEBUCK.

TYPE WRITER RIBBON VIBRATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23. I914.

1 ,1 88,491. 4 Patent-ed June 27, 1916.

2 S HEETS-SHEET 1.

A. C. ROEBUCK.

TYPE WRITER mason VIBRATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23. I914. I Patented June 27, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ALVAH C. BOEBUCK, F WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS.

TYPE-WRITER RIBBON-VIBRATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 23, 1914. Serial No. 826,572.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALVAH C. ROEBUGK, a citizen of the United States, residing at "Woodstock, in the county of McHenry and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Type-Writer Ribbon-Vibrators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to mechanism for oscillating the typewriter ribbon for upper and lower case writing with means for varying the printing path on the ribbon both for utilizing all of the portions of a ribbon for a single color and for polychrome writing.

A further object of the invention is to provide means readily operable from the structed in accordance with the principles of this invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the vibrator mechanism; Fig. 3 is'a view in elevation of a portion of the mechanism; Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of the mechanism; Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail view of a part of the mechanism, and Fig. 6 is a modification of the mechanism shown by Fig. 5. I

This invention relates particularly to adjustable ribbon vibrator in which the pivot point-of the ribbon vibrator arm is shifted up and down by bodily shifting the arm itself by means of a pin and slot connection operated by a lever at the front of the machine and intermediate connections.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the numeral 8 designates generally the base or frame of a typewriter to which a top plate 9'is secured. Pivotally mounted at one end in a-sub-frame' 10 are a plurality of key levers 11, the other ends of which extend to the front of the typewriter and are held in position by a slotted guide plate 12. Secured to the top plate 9 is a type bar segment having slots 14 in Patented June 27, 1916.

which type bars 15 are pivoted. Connect- I ing each of the key levers 11 and the corresponding type bars 15 is a link 16 by which the type bars are moved into printing posi tion against the type bar segment 13. At the front of the machine is a rest 17 for the type bars and each of the type bars is formed with a heel 18 adjacent the pivot point thereof adapted to engage a universal bar 19 disposed in a groove 20 at the rear of the type bar segment 13. The universal bar 19 is secured to or formed integral with a frame 21 pivoted at its rear end to a rocker 22, which in turn is pivoted in a depending portlon of the top plate 9, and a spring 23 is disposed between the top plate 9 and the rocker 22 tending to press the rear of the rocker downwardly and the frame 21 forwardly to seat the universal bar 19 in the groove 20.

Mounted in ways 24 secured to the top plate for lateral movement in the frame, is a carriage 25 in which is a printing platen rotatable in a vertically shiftable platen frame 27. Connected to the'platen frame 27 is a rod 28 upon which an arm 29 is pivoted with a platen shift roller 30 on the depending end of the arm. I

Pivotally mounted in depending lugs 9 at the sides of the top plate 9 is a platen shift frame comprising a rod 31 pivoted in the lugs 9 to which are secured members 32 and 33. A shift rail 34 is secured to the end members 32 and 33 and one or both of the end members are provided with an abutting-portion 35 adapted to be engaged by an arm 36 projecting upwardly from one of the key levers 11, which is designated as a shift key lever, and which has a proper finger key at the front of the machine. The arm 36 is normally in engagement with the abutment 35 and the shift rail 34 is held in abutment with the platen shift roller 30 so that the movement of' the shift key lever causes the platen shift frame to be rotated about its pivotal support to raise the shift rail 34, carrying with it the platen shift roller 30 the platen frame 27 and the platen 26. j I

Mounted in the platen shift frame is a support 37 with a depending bearing portion 38 which extends through a suitable aperture inthe universal bar frame 21. Secured to the universal bar frame is a standard 39 and pivotally mounted in the bearing portion 38 of the support 37 by means of a headed bearing pin 40 is a lever 41 the upper end of which is connected by means of a link 42 to the standard 39 and the lower arm or end of which is provided with a headed bearing pin 43. An oscillatable vibrator arm 44 is provided with a slot 45 through which the headed pivot pin 43 of the lever 41 extends so that the oscillatable arm. 44 may be moved up and down with respect to the lever 41 because of the pin and slot connection. At the outer end of the arm 44 a ribbon frisket 46 is pivotally connected and is formed at its upper end with slots 47 adapted to receive a ribbon 48 which is wound and unwound from ribbon spools in ribbon spool receptacles 59 at the sides of the machine in the well known manner.

In order to 'vary the path of the ribbon with respect to the platen 26, it is necessary only to raise or lower the frisket 46 and the arm 44. In the present invention this is accomplished by providing the vibrator arm 44 with a projection 50 which is adapted to be engaged in a slot 51 of an arm 52 secured to a shaft 53 rotatably mounted at one end in the support 37 and at the other end in the end member 32. Connected to the shaft is an arm 54 and pivotally connected to the arm is a link 55. Secured to the top plate of the frame is a depending member 56 provided with a plurality of notches 57, and pivotally connected to the frame is a bell crank 58, one arm of which is provided with a finger hold portion 59 disposed adjacent to the notches 57 and adapted to be engaged and held thereby. The other arm of the bell crank is pivotally connected to the link 55 so that the movement of the finger hold portion of the bell crank causes a corresponding movement of the link 55, the rotation of the shaft 53 and the up. or down movement of the arm 52.

In operation it is necessary only to disengage the bell crank 58 from one of the notches 57 and to engage it with one of the other notches to raise or lower the vibrator arm 44, and to raise or lower the ribbon 48. The pivot pin 40, upon which the lever 41 is pivoted, also extends through the slot 45 of the vibrator arm 44 so that any move ment of the platenshift frame causes the corresponding movement of the vibrator arm 44. The reciprocation of the universal bar frame 21 causes the oscillation of the vibrator arm 44 and of the ribbon frisket 46 by means of the support 39, the link 42 and the lever 41 which is connected to the vibrator arm 44. The movement of the ribbon vibrator for upper and lower case writing is effected automatically by the manipulation of the platen shift key, and the position of the pivot pin in the slot 45 of the vibrator arm has very little if any effect upon the movement of the ribbon vibrator when shifting from upper to lower case position. The variation produced by means of the bell crank 58 affects the movement of the ribbon for varied path writing or for polychrome writing, and the finger hold portion of the bell crank being disposed at the front of the typewriter is easily accessible so as to effect the variation with the greatest facility.

As shown in Fig. 6 a vibrator arm 44 may be connected by means of a link 51 to an arm 52 secured to the shaft 53. Other and further modifications may obviously be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a typewriter, the combination with a shiftable carriage, of a shift rail for the carriage, a lever pivoted to the shift rail, a ribbon vibrator, an adjustable arm to connect the lever to the vibrator, and means connected to the other arm of the lever for actuating the lever.

2. In a typewriter, the combination with a carriage shift rail, of a lever pivoted thereto, a ribbon vibrator, an arm connected at one end to the vibrator and adjustably connected at the other end to one arm of the lever, a universal bar, and means connecting the universal bar with the other arm of the lever for moving it in accordance with the movement of the universal bar.

3. In a typewriter, the combination with a ribbon vibrator, of a pivotally mounted lever, and an arm pivoted at one end to the vibrator and adjustable longitudinally of the lever at the other end to vary the path of the vibrator.

4. In a typewriter ribbon vibrator, the combination with a platen shift frame, of an oscillatable lever pivoted thereto, a slotted vibrator arm having a loose connection with both the frame and the lever but oscillated by the lever, and means to shift the arm for adjusting it relatively to both the frame and the lever.

5. In a typewriter ribbon vibrator, the combination with a platen shift frame, of an oscillatable lever pivoted thereto, a slotted vibrator arm having a loose connection with both the frame and the lever but oscillated by the lever, and means to shift the arm comprising a loose connection for adjusting it relatively both to the frame and to the lever.

6. In a typewriter ribbon vibrator, the combination with a support, of an oscillatable lever pivoted on the support and having a projection therefrom, a slotted vibrator arm movable on the pivot and projection of the lever, an oscillatable adjustment shaft, and a loose connection between the shaft and the arm to raise and lower the arm.

7. In a typewriter ribbon vibrator, an oscillatable lever having a pivot on one arm thereof, a vibrator arm with a slot therein through which the pivot extends and with a projection therefrom, a rotatable shaft, an arm fixed to the shaft with a slot to engage the said projection of the vibrator arm, and means to oscillate and hold the shaft in various positions.

8. In a typewriter ribbon vibrator, an oscillatable lever having a pivot pin on one arm thereof, a vibrator arm with a slot therein through which the pivot pinextends and with a projection therefrom, an arm with a slot to engage the projection, a'rotatable shaft to which the arm is connected, a bell crank connected with the shaft to oscillate it, and means to engage the bell crank for holding it and the slotted vibrator arm in various positions with respect to the pivoted oscillatable lever.

9. In a typewriter ribbon vibrator, the combination with a platen shift frame, of a support secured thereto, a lever pivoted in the support having apivot pin on one arm, a ribbon vibrato-r arm with a slot through which the pivot pin extends and with a lateral projection, a shaft rotatable in the platen shift frame, an arm secured theretohaving a slot to engage the projection, and means to rotate the shaft tovary the position of the vibrator arm with respect to the lever.

10. In a typewriter ribbon vibrator, the combination with a platen shift frame, of a support secured thereto and a pin carried thereby, anoscillatable lever mounted on the said pin and a pivot pin carried thereby,

a ribbon vibrator arm with a slot through combination with a platen shift frame, of an 4 oscillatable universal bar frame, a support secured to the platen shift frame and a pivot pin carried thereby, an oscillatable lever mounted on the pivot pin, means connecting one arm of the lever to the universal bar frame, a pivot pin carried by the other arm of the lever, an oscillatable vibrator arm with a slot through which both of the pivot pins extend and with a projection, a ribbon frisket pivotally connected to the free end of the vibrator arm, a shaft mounted in the platen shift frame, an arm connected to the shaft with a slot to engage the said projection, another arm connected to the shaft, a bell crank, a link connecting the last named arm and one arm of the bell crank, and a notched member to engage the other arm of the bell crank to hold it and the ribbon vibrator arm in any desired fixed position with respect to the pivot pins.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 9th day of March A. D; 1914:.

ALVAH G. ROEBUOK.

Witnesses: y

L. E. HoUsHoLDER, J. F. Sworrrs'rEDT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Batenta.

Washington, D. G. 

